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Frances Willard (1839-1898) was one of the most famous American women of the late nineteenth century. As president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), Willard built the largest women's rights organization in the world, campaigning for prohibition, women's suffrage, economic justice, and for women's broader political participation. As the first new biography of Willard published in over thirty-five years, this book provides readers a fascinating look into one of the most important women's rights leaders of her era. The book also closely examines Willard's religious faith--which galvanized her activism--and assesses her importance for our time.
List of contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Illustrations
- Introduction
- Part I Dreams, 1839-1879
- Chapter One: "A Romping Girl"
- Chapter Two: "What a Queer Girl Frank Willard Is!"
- Chapter Three: "I Shall be of Use to the World"
- Chapter Four: "Tell Every Body to Be Good"
- Chapter Five: "Moral Horticulture"
- Chapter Six: "Wanderer on the Face of the Earth"
- Chapter Seven: "Home Protection"
- Chapter Eight: "How to Win"
- Part II Power, 1880-1889
- Chapter Nine: "Agitate, Educate, Organize"
- Chapter Ten: "Such Chivalry toward Women"
- Chapter Eleven: "Gospel Politics"
- Chapter Twelve: White Shield Women
- Chapter Thirteen: New Testament Ethics
- Chapter Fourteen: "This is My Busy Day"
- Chapter Fifteen: "I Should have loved ... to be a Gospel Preacher"
- Chapter Sixteen: "Dawn of Woman's Day"
- Chapter Seventeen: "Gospel Socialism"
- Part III Visions, 1890-1898
- Chapter Eighteen: "Our House Beautiful"
- Chapter Nineteen: "Dearest Cossie"
- Chapter Twenty: "Queen Frances"
- Chapter Twenty-One: "My Cares are too Heavy"
- Chapter Twenty-Two: "You Know ... of the Difficulty in which I have been Placed by this Unjust Controversy"
- Chapter Twenty-Three: "What Ails Miss Willard?"
- Chapter Twenty-Four: "How Beautiful it is to be with God"
- Conclusion: "Had Vision ... in which a Woman Becomes President of the United States"
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
About the author
Christopher H. Evans is Professor of the History of Christianity and Methodist Studies at Boston University School of Theology. One of the leading scholars of the social gospel movement, he has written numerous books and articles on American religion and the history of Christianity. His books include The Kingdom is Always but Coming: A Life of Walter Rauschenbusch, which received an Award of Merit from Christianity Today in 2005.
Summary
Frances Willard (1839-1898) was one of the most prominent American social reformers of the late nineteenth century. As the long-time president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), Willard built a national and international movement of women that campaigned for prohibition, women's rights, economic justice, and numerous other social justice issues during the Gilded Age. Emphasizing what she called "Do Everything" reform, Willard became a central figure in international movements in support of prohibition, women's suffrage, and Christian socialism. A devout Methodist, Willard helped to shape predominant religious currents of the late nineteenth century and was an important figure in the rise of the social gospel movement in American Protestantism.
The first biography of Frances Willard to be published in over thirty-five years, Do Everything explores Willard's life, her contributions as a reformer, and her broader legacy as a women's rights activist in the United States. In addition to chronicling Willard's life, historian Christopher H. Evans examines how Willard crafted a distinctive culture of women's leadership, emphasizing the importance of religious faith for understanding Willard's successes as a social reformer. Despite her enormous fame during her lifetime, Evans investigates the reasons why Willard's legacy has been eclipsed by subsequent generations of feminist reformers and assesses her importance for our time.
Additional text
One of the strengths of the book is the author's sensitivity to regional differences. Passionately committed to building a strong national constituency around what she referred to as a "trinity" of social causes (prohibition, women's rights and suffrage, and workers' rights) Willard faced serious hurdles in the South and Northeast. Always strongest in the Midwest and the West, the WCTU's attempt to link the fate of temperance with women's suffrage labor rights was resisted by both Democratic and Republican partisans.
